Currently I've saved $ 600 and thought about buying a used G4 (sawtooth?) at the local apple reseller. The powermac's internal HD was replaced with a 40GB one (7200RPM) and it also comes with 256MB RAM preinstalled. The installed stock ATI 128 Rage graphic card is the only disadvantage.
I already "played around" with it (it is still running OS9), and it seems to work without problems).
I want to use this G4 model for "low level" DVD authoring and video editing (imovie, idvd), graphic editing (Photoshop), and of course for creating music with garage band. The internal HD of my current mac (G3 700MHz ibook) is to slow for those kinds of activities and provides not enough space (although graphic editing is not a problem)
I want to hear/read your opinions about this subject, maybe someone could suggest other, cheaper solutions (but I can't think of any)
Some questions still remain:
Currently I own a G3 700MHz ibook. Basically this is the only mac I have fully experienced (speed/performace wise) How does a G4 450Mhz compare to a G3 700Mhz? (I must admit I also work on another apple reseller and have taken appart a lot of apple machines (including the new G5) but there wasn't much time to "toy" around with 'em. I am kindas new to this buisness.
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I've read somewhere it is possible with add on cards to bump this G4 model to 1Ghz speed. Does panther support it?
Are there any critical firmware updates I have to install before installing Mac OSX 10.3?